Shares of Alphabet Inc. surged in premarket trading on Monday after Berkshire Hathaway Inc. revealed a major new position in the Google parent company, marking its most significant portfolio addition in the third quarter of 2025.
A regulatory filing on Friday showed that Berkshire acquired 17.8 million Class A shares of Alphabet, valued at $4.3 billion.
The purchase makes Alphabet Berkshire’s tenth-largest US stock holding as of the end of September.
Alphabet shares climbed more than 5% in premarket trading after the disclosure, extending a rally that has already seen the stock rise 51% so far this year, including a 37% gain in the third quarter alone.
A rare tech bet for Buffett
The addition of Alphabet stands out, given Warren Buffett’s traditional scepticism toward large technology companies.
Though he famously built one of Berkshire’s biggest holdings in Apple Inc., Buffett has long described the iPhone maker as a consumer products company, not a pure tech play.
It is unclear whether the Alphabet purchase was made by Buffett himself, his long-time investment deputies, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, or Greg Abel, the CEO-designate set to take over when Buffett steps down at year’s end.
Buffett, now 95, typically handles Berkshire’s largest investments personally.
At Berkshire’s 2019 shareholder meeting, both Buffett and the late Charlie Munger admitted they had “missed” the chance to buy Google earlier, despite recognising its potential through Geico’s digital advertising success.
“We screwed up,” Munger said at the time. “He’s saying we blew it,” Buffett replied.
Their belated entry into Alphabet may now be seen as a course correction to that long-acknowledged oversight.
Portfolio rebalancing
Berkshire’s latest filing showed it had reduced its Apple stake to 238.2 million shares from 280 million in the prior quarter.
The conglomerate has now sold nearly three-quarters of the more than 900 million Apple shares it once held.
Still, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest position, valued at $60.7 billion as of Sept. 30.
The filing, which listed all US-listed holdings, revealed a total equity portfolio worth $283.2 billion at the end of the third quarter.
Berkshire continues to look for ways to deploy its record $382 billion cash pile, which reached an all-time high during the same period.
In addition to the Alphabet purchase, the company recently struck a $9.7 billion deal to acquire Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical business and took a $1.6 billion stake in UnitedHealth Group Inc.
Buffett has historically avoided most technology stocks, citing their unpredictable cycles.
However, with the growing dominance of tech in the broader economy—and the long-term profitability of Google’s search and cloud businesses—the investment reflects a strategic embrace of technology as a durable earnings engine.
Whether this marks a broader pivot under Greg Abel’s incoming leadership remains to be seen.
But for now, Berkshire’s endorsement of Alphabet has added fresh fuel to one of 2025’s strongest tech stock rallies.
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